Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshō, a crescent-shaped blast of energy which causes anything struck by it to be cut in half, disintegrate or explode, depending on how concentrated it is. His Bankai takes this Up to Eleven in that it allows him to control the path and shape of the blast for better versatility. He also figures out other ways to use it like keeping the Getsuga Tenshō energy around his blade to enhance its cutting power, or cutting into an enemy and then firing a Getsuga Tenshō from inside their body, both of which take away the ability to dodge. And after reforging Zangetsu into its true form, which consists of two separate swords that he dual-wields, Ichigo can fire a sword beam out of each of them to form the cross-shaped Getsuga Jūjishō.

Kenpachi and Urahara can do similar moves as well. Urahara's "Nake, Benihime" fires a beam of blood, while Kenpachi doesn't name his attacks and just forces his spirit energy into a wave-like blast.

Hitsugaya can do an ice version of this.

Now we also have Ichigo's father also showing off his own Getsuga Tenshō, and teaching his son how to perform an advanced version of it.

Ukitake's shikai produces this sort of effect (-ish?) when it redirects multiple Ceros. The downside is that somebody else has to fire a beam at him before he can fire it back. The upside is that his redirection of energy attacks makes them much faster and thus harder to block or dodge.

Harribel has three separate sword beams, one being her fanned-out Cero, one being her Ola Azul attack (Which is yellow. It actually makes a bit of sense), and one called La Gota, which is an upgraded version of Ola Azul.

Hong Chunhwa's Narumada in Tower of God has this ability when "ignited", as well as Hatsu's Sword That Flies Lower Than Any.

In the second season of Slayers, Gourry's Sword of Light gains this ability. At one point it is used to blow up a ship.

Before that, Fate had the "Arc Saber" attack, which basically threw the Laser Blade of her device's Scythe Form at an enemy, then regenerated it.

Signum, meanwhile, has the Fire Dragon Flash/Karyuu Issen, where she creates a shaft of flames and throws it at her target...such as an entire army of Mecha-Mooks.

Mahou Sensei Negima! has the Shinmei Ryū Hidden Technique, Zanmaken: Ni no Tachi"In Celebration of my First Kisswith Ojou-sama Special" (spoilered part of name courtesy of Jack Rakan, natch). When Rakan demonstrated it, the crescent-shaped energy projectile it produced bypassed all of Negi's Deflector Shields and damaged the building behind him before finally slicing a giant floating rock some distance away behind that in half.

The attack originally comes from Love Hina, where it was used by Motoko and its development was the focus of an arc for her. The Shinmei Ryū school has a large number of ranged attack techniques, some of which have the ability to "skip" the first thing in its path and strike a target behind it.

In the Ninja Scroll TV series, Jubei seems to be capable of this and only this attack.

Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has shown examples of the Razor Wind off a sword stroke version. Shigure fought someone with that technique, and has done ranged attacks not only with a sword but with a wooden spoon.

Shannon does this in Scrapped Princess when he's using Zefiris. An interesting variation, in that the beam extends from both ends of his sword.

The Samurai Champloo episode "Lethal Lunacy" features an outlaw named Shoryū who has mastered the ability to attack using ki. One of the ways he does this is through a blast of wind unleashed from his sword. Unlike other sword beams, the damage done does not reflect how the wind blast struck the target; rather, it causes what appear to be completely unrelated injuries, like slashes across the palms or devastating internal damage without any exterior signs of harm.

Inverted and defied in Busou Renkin where one of the alchemic weapons "Sword Samurai X" takes the form of a sword that has the ability to nullify energy attacks. Nobuhiro Watsuki, the writer, stated that he gave it this power because he didn't like sword beams, as they defeated the very purpose of a sword, so he gave the sword the ability to nullify other ranged attacks instead.

Miaka throws out one of these in Fushigi Yuugi to fire Soi's lightning attack back at her. Justified because the sword she's using is a holy sword given to Hotohori by Taiitsukun.

In Naruto, the Samurai of the Land of Iron are all capable of doing this, once they've channeled chakra through their swords like Laser Blades.

In Soul Eater, Maka's Straight Hunter used against the Clown works like this. She achieved something similar by mistake when she used Witch Hunter against Sid, and tripped up. Ragnarok's Screech Alpha attack also creates a Sword Beam.

Snimon of Digimon demonstrates this ability when it launches its Twin Sickles technique.

Tatewake Kunō in Ranma ½ is capable of projecting strikes of compressed air from his blade as he thrusts, which are capable of crumbling concrete.

In Tokkô Ranmaru can fire powerful energy blasts from his sword. Sakura was also able to do this in the manga.

The "Reppuzan" attack used by Mio and Yoshika in Strike Witches is an example of this, being a beam of magical energy fired through the sky to attack ranged enemies. It's name roughly translates to "Great Gale Cut", meaning that it may be wind-based. Interestingly enough, it has several similarities to the Getsuga Tensho of Bleach: It has a sky/wind/heavens theme, the attack is used by a main character and a mentor/parental figure, and the True Reppuzan/Final Getsuga Tensho causes the user to lose their powers (both users, incidentally, having huge amount of spiritual/magical power that was difficult to control).

Cutey Honey had this power in the '70s series, though she used it sparingly.

In World Conquest Zvezda Plot, members of the organization White Light wield Laser Swords which are capable of firing energy blasts. This includes both straight bolts from the tip of the sword, and crescent arcs when the sword is swung.

Various blade-wielding monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX use these in various ways.

Comic Books

The Swordsman, an old trainer of Hawkeye and enemy/member of The Avengers, had a high tech sword made for him by the Mandarin using Makluan technology. It can shoot several kinds of energy beams as well as a flame blast.

That's how the Sommerswerd blasts any Darklord if it receives a direct ray of sunlight and there is a Darklord target within range. Or just from the energy accumulated by not using it for most of Book 12 until the end.

Skarn-Ska ("Wolf's Blade") in The Curse of Naar can also deliver an energy bolt to soften some enemies.

Live-Action TV

Naturally, Super Sentai and Power Rangers have featured every version of this. The most common Finishing Move, though, is an unusual version: the wielder, facing the screen, swings, and a diagonal line appears as it passes. Scene switches to the monster, slash effect appears over him, and KABOOM soon follows — regardless of how far away from the wielder the real-space shots show the monster to be. What it would look like to someone watching from nearby is a good question, like many of the show's Stock Footage sequences that just don't work in real space. Though arc effects, through-ground effects, and all the rest exist, you won't see a finisher that looks like this in Stock Footage get done in real space and prove to be one of these. Power Rangers RPM is one of few series to show what its sword-slash finisher "really" looks like, with the High Octane Megazord striking the monster as it passes by.

Kamen Rider Blade has the Royal Straight Flush in his King Form Super Mode. During the series it's depicted as a giant blast of energy after a sword swing, going through five cards, but Kamen Rider Decade depicts it as a wave of energy that goes through the ground.

Kamen Rider OOO has a variation where his OOO Bash finisher is both this and a Diagonal Cut, releasing a wave of energy that seems to cut through reality itself...only for everything except the Monster of the Week to slowly slide back into place, at which point the monster goes boom.

Kamen Rider Gaim has more than its fair share due to its large cast. An unusual example is Gaim's Daidai Ittou attack, where he launches Sword Beams that trap his enemy in an orange-shaped sphere of energy, then dashes in and slices them in half, causing the "orange" to explode into slices.

In Saban's Masked Rider, an adaptation of the Japanese Kamen Rider BLACK RX, the title character had this as his finisher. In fact, this was the only thing his sword was ever seen doing. This is a result of Bowdlerization, as the title character of Black RX finished his opponents by stabbing them rather violently. Naturally, the Moral Guardians did not approve, fearing children would imitate this, so they forced the showrunners to make the Masked Rider shoot his enemies to death...with a sword.

Literature

Starfighters of Adumar features the blastsword, a short sword that fires a laser from the tip when it makes contact with a solid object.

Wes Janson: So it's like a blaster you have to hit someone with. I've got to have one.

In Celtic Mythology, the sword Caladbolg shot rainbow-coloured streams of energy when swung. Just one of them cut three mountains in half.

Tabletop Games

The Sandstorm-Wind Attack mode of the Exalted Charm Iron Raptor Technique is basically this, as is its follow-on Blazing Solar Bolt. Lunars have a version of this called Wind-Wings Carry Technique, although since Lunar charms by their nature have fairly broad effects, it increases the effective range of any weapon, melee or ranged.

In Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition, Wizards can take the "Wizard of the Spiral Tower" paragon path, which allows the use of your sword as an implement, for things such as Magic Missile. (Thematically, the "implement" is where your spell originates.) This also includes the swordmage, that naturally uses the sword as its implement.

Mage: The Awakening has the Ranged Blow spell, which simply allows the caster to make ranged attacks with melee weapons by slightly distorting intervening space. The Brotherhood of the Demon Wind, a group of Magic Knightswordmasters, gain an equivalent ability that's innate and doesn't risk Paradox.

Warhammer's Prince Tyrion carries the runesword Sunfang, which can channel the fires of its forging into a blazing bolt of white-hot fire once per game. His brother Teclis's sword is supposed to be able to do the same with lightning bolts in the background (Teclis forged it himself, taking the intricate construction of Sunfang as his model), but it hasn't had this ability in the game for many editions.

Can be invoked, yet still downplayed, in Pathfinder with a cheesy fighter build that relies on the Warrior Spirit advanced weapon training option and the Energy Mastery feat, that lets the fighter enhance a weapon they choose at the beginning of the day with magic weapon properties and shoot cones of fire, cold, acid or electricity out of it.

Mega Man X's Zero does this all the time with his Z-Saber, usually in a boss fight against him; can be taken Up to Eleven in X5 if you go the bad ending route, where, if you don't defeat him under around 2 minutes, he'll turn invincible and fire massive sword beams of One-Hit Kill. Playable Zero only gets it in the seventh game, called Hadangeki.

In X3, if you manage to get Zero's saber (through an intricate method), it'll modify X's Charged Attack: With his armor's arm part, by charging to the max, he can shoot a sword beam from the saber after shooting 2 blasts from his buster. The sword beam itself can kill bosses (including Sigma) in two hits. In X6, where X gains the saber from the start, 2 of his obtainable armors have sword beams as their Giga Attack: a simple, shot-forward large crescent beam with Blade Armor, and 2 encircling large crescent beams with Shadow Armor. The Magma Blade weapon (from Blaze Heatnix) also makes him swing a Flaming Sword that shoots a sword beam made of fire.

Colonel of the fourth game likes spamming these from his Laser Blade, and Double can also throw large ones from his Laser Blade Below the Shoulder after he Turns Red. Slash Beast launches his Twin Slasher from his feet claws, and Grizzly Slash throws his Crescent Shots with his large red claw. Sigma in X8 has a variant where he smashes the ground with his BFS, causing a short-ranged wave of energy.

The Zero in Mega Man Zero does this as well, in an EX skill for the second, third, and fourth (final) games. As does Harpuia in that game, excessively. The bosses Zero gets sword beams from - Childre Inarabitta and Fenri Lunaedge - also can do this, with their ears and arm-blades respectively.

The Skyward Strike from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the first 3D Zelda game to have this as a regular ability, can be used at any amount of health, though the sword has to be raised to the sky to charge up for use, leaving Link vulnerable to possible injury. The beam can be shot off vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and as a tiny bullet using a thrust, or used to power up the Spin Attack, extending its range.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had the sword spin move which, when combined with magic, gave off a circle of energy that expanded beyond the range of the sword and damaged enemies. Not the classic Zelda sword beam, but still...

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has the Fierce Deity's Mask, a boss-only item that gives you the most powerful sword in the game that shoots sword beams that attack from all sides. All it costs is a little magic, which, for 200 rupees, you can have an unlimited supply of for the remaining 2 1/2 days of a given cycle.

Tri Force Heroes requires you to wear special outfits on top of having full health to use sword beams.

Breath of the Wild, in one of many nods to the original game, reintroduces the sword beam as a basic ability that can only be used at full health, but is limited to the Master Sword, and uses the game's throwing mechanic to activate.

Kirby, as seen in the page picture, can fire beams from his sword when he becomes Sword Kirby (In the games it only works while he's at full health, in homage to the Zelda example). Final Cutter a move that can be used by Sword or Cutter Kirby depending on the game is a blade combo ending in one of these and appears as Kirby's Up B special in the Super Smash Bros. games. In Kirby: Triple Deluxe Sword Kirby can fire off a Skyward Strike like in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Master/Galaxia Kirby can use a charged version of the move (that closly resembles the anime depiction of the move) in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.

Meta Knight is strongly associated with this ability and has had these in most of his appearances both as a playable character and as a boss. It's his Signature Move in the anime and he's the one who teaches Kirby how to use it. Meta Knight (and later, other people such as Bun) actually refers to it as "Sword Beam".

King Dedede in the gamemode "Dedede Tour!" can fire off a "hammer wave" when at full health in a similar fashion. He can also fire an arrow-like beam that he can aim; these can cut ropes like an arrow would.

Hype's sword in Hype The Time Quest produces some kind of medium-ranged razor beam when swung, which deals as much damage to the enemies as a hit from the blade itself.

The first Custom Robo released in North America has a partial example. It has two sword-shaped guns that in turn fire sword-shaped lasers at the target with different trajectories. The swords cannot typically be used as melee weapons, though; some Robo models swing the sword while using melee attacks, but the effect is purely cosmetic.

In addition to the old standard (Majinken), there's Kyle, Yuri and Ludger's Azure Edge, the recurring Fierce Demon Fang, Ange's Kouhajin, Shing's Solar Flare and Solar Parabola... suffice it to say, most melee attackers in the Tales of games are required to have at least one somewhere. That's to say nothing of the advanced versions like Reid's Double Demon Fang, Lloyd's Demonic Circle and Kunzite's Demonic Chaos. Variations include Senel and Luke's hand-thrown Demon Fist, Estelle's "Star Stroke", and Repede's "Demonic Charge". Yuri also has Final Gale, which is two Sword Beams combined into a bigger blast. Guy's second Mystic Arte "Brilliant Overlord" turns this into an art form with several sword beams being thrown and converging into a huge energy explosion. For an axe-based variant, Barbatos Goetia has "Genocide Braver", a huge fire beam blasted out of the tip of his axe, and "Hell Heat" where his axe shoots an entire stream of fireballs.

Touhou: Resident swords(wo)man Youmu Kompaku uses her sword for both melee and ranged attacks. Of course, this being Touhou, her ranged attacks take the form of scores of spirit bullets.

The fighting games play it straight with both Youmu, Miko and Tenshi. Particularly egregious in Miko's case.

In Armored Core, it's possible to launch the energy off an energy blade, although you need either a special sword or Human+ (or that particular game's equivalent) to do it.

Final Fantasy features this very often. Many characters have an extension attack that will often create a wave of energy to increase the sword range.

Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII both feature an attack literally named Blade Beam that makes them fire off a wave from their sword. Cloud being a Blow Smasher will do this in a single giant ground based blast while Sephiroth will do so in smaller waves but in more accurate and greater quantities.

Cloud's "Blade Beam" attack not only does four times as much damage as a regular attack, but also dissipates after hitting the intended target, hitting every other enemy for regular damage. In addition, he also has Meteorain (or Meteor Shots, whichever you prefer) that literally throws meteors from his sword.

Sephiroth evidently follows the "hardened air" attack pattern, slashing so quickly with his Octaslash that it hits after he's finished slashing.

In Crisis Core, during the cutscene of Sephiroth's fight with Genesis, Sephiroth uses a flurry of Blade Beam attacks to neatly slice chunks off the Junon Cannon.

Zack Fair apparently taught Cloud the Meteorain/Meteor Shots skill, as he uses it in Crisis Core.

Though he himself only learns it AFTER meeting Cloud. Kinda weird when you think about it, and the other DMW Limits are actually taught TO Zack by someone else. So maybe Cloud taught Zack Meteor Shot?

Squall from Final Fantasy VIII pulls this off with shining colors. His Fated Circle, Blasting Zone and End of Heart Lion Heart techniques all have an expansion wave swing that increases your range to many times its original size. This is referenced in Dissidia, when, during his EX Mode, Squall's range increases significantly (the model of his blade becomes the much longer Lionheart, but the range is almost half again the length of THAT blade).

Blasting Zone is really more of a Blade Extension Beam...that's roughly several thousand feet long.

Seifer also does the same.

Squall also has a delayed sword beam attack: Rough Divide involves slashing upwards, followed by a massive upwards explosion from directly below the enemy it hits.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 features the Gria with an attack called blast wave which is an attack using a sword that hits things in a straight line. (much more limited than Earth Render)

In Final Fantasy XII, Gabranth uses an attack where he slashes the air rapidly to send out several energy waves from the blades.

In Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Squall, Cloud, Sephiroth and Gabranth return with their signature sword beams. Warrior of Light and the Onion Knight take it a step further with Radiant Sword and Swordshower. The latter has the Warrior swing his sword to create beams of light that look like swords, while Swordshower conjures a swarm of sword-shaped energy beams to hit the opponent from all angles. So yeah, not only do they use Sword Beams, but their Sword Beams look like swords.

Ragnell and Alondite, the twin BFS's from Fire Emblem 9 and 10, can do this.

There's also the Wind Edge, Storm Sword, and Tempest Blade as well. And Mist has a unique weapon that shoots Sword Beams.

And in the earlier games there's swords that cast magic as a form of a sword beam— just wave the sword and boom, you've got a spell like a mage would with a book. Notably, in FE 4, Mages could wield swords after promotion, and since the swords were not affected by silence, unlike normal spells, and were "El"-level (Except the Light Brand, which cast the basic light spell), they were good options if you wanted to get around silence.

FE 6 has the "King's Lance" Eckesachs — wielded by the not soFinal Boss, a HUGE BFS that splits into a trident. Swinging it around launches one even if said Boss smashes your face with it.

The Sword Of Seals launches fire these at range, and causes huge explosions when it scores a Critical Hit.

Dante has this in the form of his "Drive" attack in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and Devil May Cry 4, which causes a shockwave to jet across the ground and damage all enemies in its path. In 4, Nero has Maximum Bet, a Devil Trigger-exclusive move where he uses his sword(s) to fire off a wide X-shaped energy wave that also pierces through targets, but the crescent beam he uses is only seen during cutscenes. Vergil in 3 (and Dante in 4) has the Yamato, which can slash enemies far outside its normal range with a delayed effect. It does this for all of its moves, but Judgement Cut is the only one that's actually a projectile (to be precise, he does a quick draw slash and then a sphere of "slashes" appear in front of him).

In NES side-scroller The Battle of Olympus, you can do this while wielding the Divine Sword. Each beam costs HP, though, unless you have the Bracelet of Power.

Minazuki Zankuro's Finishing Move in Samurai Shodown V Special is a MASSIVE sword beam that completely obliterates the victim, save for their feet.

Pokémon has Psycho Cut and several other moves. Any "special" (non-physical) move coming from a bladed body part is an example. Keldeo's signature move Secret Sword is an example of this as well, and actually deals physical damage despite being a "special" attack.

There's this nice little semi-hidden treat on Shining Force for the Genesis: if you happen to finish off the final boss (bear in mind that it has three heads to be attacked separately) with a physical blow from main hero while having the legendary sword equipped, his usual attack animation is changed for a neat special animation involving a sword beam. This is the only moment in the game where the main character attacks this way. Also, hidden character Musashi's attack animation is a sword beam.

In Rocket Knight Adventures, Sparkster can fling energy beams from his sword. This was taken out in the Genesis/Mega Drive version Sparkster, but made a return in the 2010 Rocket Knight revival.

In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Vanitas, one of the game's main villains, has a basic two-hit combo that consists of a lunging slash and a somersaulting uppercut with his Keyblade. Towards the end of the game, he starts using the latter attack to shoot a fast-moving, short-ranged crescent beam and, later on, a slow-moving, homing one. Wave Motion Sword example in the same game: In the second phase of his story mode's final boss fight, Ventus gains the ability to fire powerful energy beams from his Keyblade. His opponent, a souped-up Vanitas, can do the same, resulting in a Beam-O-War if the two characters launch their attacks at the same time.

The Dimension Slash attack (which has the user focus energy into their weapon before unleashing a gigantic, battlefield-rending sword beam) is a staple of Nippon Ichi games, especially in the Disgaea series where it's first appearance was in the first game. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness's strongest sword, the Yoshitsuna, has the range of a gun.

In the PC game Little Fighter, Deep does this, while Woody does it with his ARMS.

In Too Human this effect is used when using a fierce attack with either a two handed sword, one handed sword, or dual wield sword; it manifests as a blue burst of energy flying in a straight line accompanied by the howl of a wolf.

The Swordsman subclass in Dragon Nest has half of its skill tree dedicated to this Trope. For the third job change (not released in NA yet), they can become Lunar Knights/Moonlords to get a move that lets them spam 5 huge Sword Beams from midair. Consequently, Bleach fanboy noobs is often used as a blanket description of Swordsmen, who are vehemently hated by much of the community.

In Illusion of Gaia, Will's two alternate forms possess variations of this. The first is used by Freedan, and is called the "Dark Friar". By attacking once and holding down on the attack button, Freedan can charge his sword to fire off what amounts to a cross between this and fire magic. Later in the game, when the player gets to Euro, one of two power-ups available in a side-area allows Freedan to upgrade the Dark Friar, resulting in the player being able to push the attack button again when the Friar is either flying away or hitting an enemy. This results in the attack splitting into four smaller fire-ball beams that then spin away and increases the range of the attack. At the end of the game, meanwhile, Shadow gains the "Firebird" attack, which allows the player to attack at range by simply hitting the attack button and watching phoenix-shaped projectiles fire at the Final Boss.

Jin Kisaragi and Hakumen have this as a super. One is actually a wave of cold from his sword (Jin), whereas the other is played straight (Hakumen).

Augus's blade, Wailing Dark from Asura's Wrath uses this as it's projectile, and can be curved sideways and can utilize multiple sword beams at once by default.

The Moonlight Greatsword in Dark Souls unleashes this as its strong attack. Notable in being one of the few exploding sword beams. The Drake sword also unleashes slightly different sword beams, The Iron Golems axe fires... Axe Beams, and the dragon slayer spear shoots electric spear beams. FromSoftware loves this trope.

The Moonlight Greatsword returns as the Holy Moonlight Blade in the DLC of Bloodborne, and retains its Sword Beam properties. Also from the DLC is the Squick of this trope being combined with the game's motif: Lady Maria creates what are basically Sword Beams with their blood.

Egg Emperor in Sonic Heroes alternates between vertical and horizontal versions as his main attack. The same boss would return in Sonic Generations 3DS, now with diagonal ones added to the mix under certain conditions.

Kai Leng in Mass Effect 3. The N7 Slayer Vanguard in multiplayer that comes with ME3: Earth DLC features the Biotic Slash ability, which allows you to fire biotic razorwind from your sword.

Shulk's Monado Purge art in Xenoblade. It's more useful for its secondary effect of disabling the target's auras then it is for its damage, though.

In Xenoblade Chronicles X, Phonton Saber users can learn this as a battle art, Longswords have something like this too though it requires the player to be at a closer range to the enemy

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC introduces the Bloodskal Blade, which fires blood-red Sword Beams at varying angles, depending on the power-attack performed. The beam is also used to open doors in the dungeon where the sword is found.

In the first game, the Ghost Knight family of enemies have the Windhash technique which does this. Stronger forms have the V-Windhash and Neo-Windhash.

In Duel Saga, Lang's final Hyper Art, "Sleeping Dragon", is a massive sword beam. This one is a variant in that the beam is emitted as the sword is thrust in a piercing motion, as opposed to a slashing motion as is typical for this trope.

Lo Wang can use the Wing of Crane ability in Shadow Warrior (2013) to imbue his sword with energy and send a horizontal wave slashing out. The Nobitsura Kage you've been after the whole game turns out to be even better at this once it's fully assembled, becoming Sword Beam Spam incarnate.

In Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Reborn, many previously melee-focused suits such as the Epyon can send beam saber slashes flying at enemies as their 'charged shot' attack. The best example is probably the Susanowo piloted by Mister Bushido, which has a charged Limit Break consisting of an enormous horizontal beam-slash the width of the screen that flies nearly to the edge of the game's draw distance. It is basically instant death to any Mooks caught in its path and will usually bring enemy aces or Mobile Armors to their knees.

In MS Saga: A New Dawn, Tremmie, Rezner and Hal can learn the Sonic Boom boost attack, which enables a mobile suit armed with a sword or a spear to fire off one of these. It inflicts mediocre damage but does not provoke retaliation, allowing a melee-oriented Glass Cannon to strike down an opponent without harm to itself.

For Tremmie, Vargas and Hal, there's a high-level version called Sonic Storm that hits all opponents simultaneously; with a sufficiently high-leveled suit, it is usually a One-Hit Polykill against mooks. Some high-level enemies have this move as well.

Rath has two sword beam attacks. Crossblade has him use his two main swords Axiom and Praxis to fire off an X-shaped projectile by slashing into the air. Catalytic Smash has him use his third sword Precept to unleash a shockwave, extending directly ahead of him.

In an obvious Shout-Out to The Legend of Zelda, Galilea's "It's Dangerous to go Alone" augment gives her the ability to unleash a ranged blast of energy with each swing of her Greatsword while her health is full.

MX.Ronin minions are capable of sending crossblade attack waves to attack at long range. If an attack wave hits a Battleborn, it will return to the Ronin that sent it. If it hits again on the return, it will deal more damage and inflict slow for a few seconds.

Senran Kagura: one of Ikaruga's Limit Breaks is her swinging her katana that then launches a fire bird-shaped sword beam forward.

Several of the swords in Terraria have this ability. For most, it is in the form of 'thrown' magical swords generated by swinging it, but the Flying Dragon has a much more traditional crescent-shaped beam attack. The lowest of which is the Ice Sword that can only fire an ice shard every few seconds to the Terra Blade that can fire beams that penetrate multiple enemies until dissipating. Being a sword, each benefits from melee bonuses, giving melee players a ranged attack of sorts.

Excalibur the Sword of Promised Victory, Saber's weapon, can release blasts of destructive power capable of annihilating entire buildings with ease. Due to flawed summoning and Shirou's low prana capacity, Saber cannot use this attack freely. Fate/Zero and Fate/Extella reveal that it's powerful enough to destroy a literal Cthulhu and an alien superweapon powerful enough to defeat gods.

The "Grubberfly's Elegy" Charm, the reward for doing Papa Grub's sidequest, from Hollow Knight allows for this It creates a shockwave-shaped blast from the tip of the Kight's sword, and does 50% weapon damage. It can be stacked with "Quick Nail" for Beam Spam. However, it only works at full HP (but this can be cheated with Lifeblood charms, which grant temporary HP).

In Thunder Cats and ThunderCats (2011), the Sword of Omens can shoot an energy bolt for its chosen wielders, by pointing it at the intended target and screaming "Hooo!"

Transformers Prime has the Star Saber, introduced in the episode "Legacy". It's on the higher end of the scale in terms of firepower, causing enough damage to nearly crash a warship.

In Winx Club, Oritel's Cool Sword can shoot energy blasts when it's magically charged. Swords used by the guards on Domino can also shoot energy blasts.

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zuko uses something very like this effect a couple of times, using his twin swords as a focus for his firebending powers. Aang has also been known to do something similar with his staff and his airbending skills.

In Trollhunters, the Sword of Daylight shoots out a beam of pure daylight after Jim stabs Bular through the chest, turning most of his body to stone in the process.

An episode of Dungeons & Dragons had the kids make an uneasy alliance with a mighty skeleton warrior who was cursed by Venger. The skeleton warrior had the ability to shoot energy beams out of his sword, which he used on Venger to good effect.

Real Life

The people over at Wicked Lasers had to do work to avoid this trope here. If they hadn't, the product would have been something more like an extra riot baton with a very powerful laser coming out the tip, particularly impressive in that the website all but outright says that their lasers can be used for self defense.

By snapping their claws, the pistol shrimp can create vacuum shockwaves to kill other fish from a distance. So powerful is this Claw Beam that it can produce light as the surrounding water is briefly heated to sun-like temperatures. The mantis shrimp creates a similar but shorter-ranged effect from the force of its punches.

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